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would no doubt scare them off. He was large, powerful, and predatory. The thought brought a flush to my cheeks. Of course the creatures would be scared of him. But that didn’t explain why they would flee when he was human, especially if the birds weren’t affected by it.
     
    “They seem to sense the magic within us, and they don’t like it,” said Leon. He shrugged, muscles rippling, and flipped his hair out of his eyes. “I’m not sure why, but I do know that most animals either go on the offensive or take off running whenever I get too close.” Like a dog or cat straying too close to a squirrel in the city, I thought. They always took off long before the animals could get a hold of them. Cars killed more squirrels in the city than anything else, as far as I knew.
     
    “That’s… odd.” It took me a moment to find the right word. Even then, I wasn’t sure if it was the word he wanted me to use. But it was true – it was odd. Odd that animals would be so terrified of magic. Odd that a shifter could not blend in around animals. I wasn’t much for speculation around the supernatural, as I hadn’t grown up believing in magic or other such things, but even I knew that this seemed like a strange shortcoming in the otherwise magnificent magic of these powerful – and gorgeous – people. I swallowed hard at that last thought and tried not to look at Leon. It was useless. My eyes were constantly drawn to his flawless beauty. To his shaggy hair, his golden skin, his feline eyes, and his powerfully and gorgeously cut physique. Just seeing him flexing  as he moved from spot to spot in the forest stirred heat deep inside me and set my knees quivering. I swallowed hard and forced myself not to lick my lips. I wanted to lick him. It was a thought that struck me strangely but deeply. I wanted to reach out and touch him, stroke him, suck on his neck, do things to him I had never dreamed of doing to another human being.
     
    But then, Leon wasn’t any other human being.
     
    “Are you all right?” asked Leon, jerking me out of my thoughts, which had strayed to wondering how hair-covered he was.
     
    “Um…”
     
    “Your heart rate is increasing.” He didn’t look over his shoulder as he spoke, so he couldn’t see the look of shock on my face, but I’m sure he heard it in my voice.
     
    “ What?” I asked, staring at him incredulously. I stumbled a bit as I spoke. How did he know these things, and why hadn’t he said anything before? Oh God, if he could hear my heart beating… I felt my face heat up from embarrassment. Did he know of my attraction then? Of my deep-seated want to be close to him, to touch him, to embrace him? Did my heart reveal that much, or did he have another way of sensing it?
     
    “I can hear your heart beating,” said Leon, as though I hadn’t already figured it out. “And I can also tell when your core temperature is rising.”
     
    “Okay…” I drew out the word and scowled at him, hands shaking as I stuffed them into my pockets. “What else can you do? What can all shifters do?”
     
    Leon was silent for a minute as we walked. He seemed to roll the words over in his mind as his eyes gained a faraway look. But even in his distant state he still moved with the graceful slink of a cat. I stumbled over myself a few times just watching him walk. The flick of his hips, the roll of his shoulders, it was all breath-taking and exhilarating. I could barely keep my breath. The want, no, the need to reach out and touch him made me want to scream.
     
    “It depends on the shifter,” he said, finally. I didn’t bother to shake myself out of my more lustful thoughts this time. The low growl of his voice only served to enhance the mental image I had. “Feline shifters have the advantage of eyes and ears, along with our physical prowess-” I smirked at the phrase, he had no idea. “-but other shifters have other abilities. It all depends on our shifted creature.”
     
    I nodded.